Aquamen Travel to Michigan, Split Weekend Mich., Mich St.

Last weekend, the Harvard men's swimming team enjoyed stunning success against national powers Penn State and Syracuse. This weekend, the Crimson wanted more, so it took a whirlwind tour of Michigan--where they took on Michigan State Friday night and traditional NCAA power Michigan Saturday.

The team split the weekend contests--defeating Michigan State by two points and losing to Michigan by 50 points--but the weekend was an positive sign about the progress Harvard is making towards becoming a national power.

"We showed the rest of the country and ourselves we can compete on a national level and do well," junior Dave Heilman said.

At Michigan State

On Friday, after a long morning of travel, the team arrived at the Michigan State just one hour before the beginning of the meet. Things began slowly, but the team kicked into high gear with a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard breaststroke by co-captain Richard Ou and freshman Dave Schwartz.

By the time the last event rolled around, Harvard needed only a second-place finish in the freestyle relay to win the meet. The Spartans, with many available swimmers, stacked their relay team with their faster swimmers. Harvard, which brought only 14 simmers, had very few rested swimmers left. But the relay team of co-captain Dave Osterhus, freshman Bryon Butts, and sophomores Kevin Stockton and Rick Osterberg pulled out the second-place finish, propelling Harvard to a two-point victory.

"Our relay team stepped up," Ou said.

The Michigan State meet done, the team turned its attention to the focus of their trip in Ann Arbor. Michigan, team members said, would not be an easy opponent and the emphasis was as much on "learning experience" as "win."

"Michigan has a strong lineup, no doubt about that," Ou said. "Swimming a big team like Michigan is an eye-opener that lets you know what kind of competition is out there. We wanted to see how fast we could go against top competition."

Because Michigan's great strength is distance swimming, the Wolverines enjoyed a tremendous lead over Harvard after the early long-distance events. But as the shorter distance events began, Harvard mounted a strong comeback.

It all started with Junior Jan Esway's victory in the 200-yard individual medley.

"This got us fired up," Heilman said. "We realized we could compete with these guys."

Senior Brent Lorenzen and freshman Dave Valdes followed the Esway win with a 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly, and were themselves followed by Esway and Heilman, who tied for first in the 100-yard freestyle.

Other individual achievements included Ou's second-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke and Heilman's second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle to one of the three fastest sprinters in the nation.

Despite the score, the team saw nothing but positive signs in the meet.

"The team had to perform, and they did," Ou said. "They met the challenge head-on."

Furthermore, Coach Mike Chasson calculated that if the whole team had been there, rather than just 14 members, and had all swam well, the team only would have lost by a mere six points.

These positive results have the team looking to even bigger goals.

"We should win Easterns," junior Brian Livingston said. "Now it's time to look to the national level and get as many people qualified for NCAA's as possible."